#Zanado.

[randomnameless]

The quintessential problem with Claude and the deer is that they should not have been involved in the war at all, or at least not Claude. What does he have to gain participating on it? Nothing, and he makes it even more explicit in azure moon when he dissolves the alliance. He could've pretty easely given the power to Lorenz or Hilda and nope out of there (what he does in silver snow), as it is clear througouht white clouds that he doesn't have as much of an attachtment to Fodlan as he does Almyra. And it isn't like the devs couldn't take the deer studients out during post-TS, when Marianne unless recruited is pressumed dead, and Lorenz unless recruited joins the imperial forces and dies helping the empire.

Outside of the problems with racism and the bigoted tropes related to "savage cultures" the Fodlan games perpetuate, the devs did not know how to use one of their house leaders for the main plot of "church vs empire", and idk if that's because they bit more than they could chew, or if it was intentional taking into account who gets the short end of the stick in both games happens to be mixed and from one of those "savage cultures".

TBH...

It's on the devs for having wanted to add a third lord to their game, but failing to, well, link him to any of those plots.

Supreme Leader's war of unification?

Well, Nopes gave him a part this plot - and yet there's no third choice in this plot : you bend the knee or you die. Nopes' wise, Clout decided (in his route) to bend the knee with his "alliance" that is totally supposed to make Supreme Leader reconsider her desire to roll over Leicester and make it part of Adrestia again!

(Granted, Nopes don't tell us how his plea to stop the war after killing the evil lizard lady will play out and leaves an open ending...)

In Houses, well, he doesn't want Leicester to be flattened, and goes on the offensive (counter offensive?) when Billy pops up with basically what is the plot events of Silver Snow (down to using the same strategy with disguises) with the Gronder Map.

And that addition radically changes... well, everything regarding Claude's relevance : he cannot form an alliance with the Blue Lord or the Kingdom to get rid of the Empire because "plot convenient myopia" and apparently Dimitri BaD enough that he attacks Alliance troops for no reason.

Forget SS, GW (and AM, in a way) is just using plot contrived excuse to... not have an united from to face the Empire. Why? IDK. Each Lord must be the hero of his story, or the unification boner means only one of them can "win" an unified Fodlan i'd guess.

Nabateans and the plot ?

No one gives a fig about that "plot", so it's basically pursuing a side-quest for no payoff.

Now, as @fantasyinvader wrote, Claude's story and journey as one who is ignorant and gets to learn and clear his misconceptions + the background of the land we're living in could have been interesting, doubly so given how Billy is voiceless and cannot play the "protag discovers the world at the same time as the player does" role.

But it has... no payoff.

Much like Rhea's infodump about the World, Relics and Nabateans... Claude reacts to the mention that Billy has a rock for heart, and not about his crest, his shiny bow or the fact that Rhea also had a vested interest in, uh, getting rid of prejudice against people who are perceived as "different" because her family was genocided for that.

Hell, the entire "prejudice" angle from Supreme Leader's war is swept under the rug, so we can have the Deers say nonsense like wanting to rekt Thales for Supreme Leader's sake, while only Flayn and Seteth can hear her "nabateans shouldn't have power over the people"...

There's no parallel drawn in the game about Claude and Rhea's situation - since she's at the center of this subplot - about being perceived as "outsiders" and not being able to do various things from existing to "rule over the people" because of what they are, or even faking their identities and building metaphorical walls between them and the people they're living with because they are afraid of rejection.

Nah, we can't have that, Rhea must be irrelevant to the possible, while also being the biggest scapegoat/dragon of this saga at the same time as a nebulous red herring to sell pots of tea.

Ihthe "fight against prejudice and make people accept each other" angle was that relevant to his route, Claude would have most likely talked or interacted with Dimitri and learnt of his plan to cleanse Duscur's name in his Father's assassination, raised a brow at Petra being a hostage and done something else than give a surprised pikachu face at Rhea's infodumps.

He could have reacted at her reveal that if you might want to live in peace with some people, if those people don't want that and label you as nothing more than fodder or things to be looted, it's not going to work.

And of course, gave a reaction at your second in command (unofficially?)'s reveal that, uh, her house keeps identured Almyran children as war prisoners?

Some people already made some AUs or "what ifs" routes for a proper Claude route and not the nonsense that we got in FE16 where it's basically "I react to the same plot events that happen in the other routes but top it all with a zombie".

The Deers could have been "better introduced" in a plot about getting rid of prejudice, or learning the causes of this prejudice : Marianne was/is hunted because of her blood ties to Maurice - not because what she did, but because what Momo did back then! - Lysithea was treated as a guinea pig and her house rolled over by Adrestia who has a less than rosy views about the "offshoots" that are called Leicester and Faerghus, Lorenz could explain that prejudice, just like piety, are tools used by people whenever they're relevant, like, some people being pissed at foreigners and some who aren't because they make money through international trading like Margrave Edmund does, Hilda justifying her House's animosity towards Almyrans because they lost many people in those pointless skirmishes (maybe a closed ones? Her mom or Uncle or whatever?) which would make Claude realise that "ending prejudice" is a much more difficult quest than, idk, just killing one or two randoms.

The commoner trio might share Claude's views about prejudice and welcoming foreigners, but have more "mundane" worries like being able to have a roof and food to eat, which might be the case of some people in Leicester, or tell us more about Leicester and how it works (give us more insight about the different countries if Fodlan ffs).

Maybe we could have add a Claude who learns and discovers Fodlan, and along the way, starts to love the land as much, if not more, than Almyra and really wanting to protect this land from whatever Supreme Leader's cooking, or becoming an Almyra v.2.

I don't think making Claude the third wheel of the plot was maliciously intentional because of the, uh, implications with RL cultures and Almyra, but more like they didn't know where to put him.

I noticed you wrote the conflict as one that is "the church vs the empire", but I do not really agree - if that was the case, the war would have stopped in VW/AM/SS the second Rhea was caught.

The main conflict is Supreme Leader's war of conquest - with the twist that the devs were really banking on their brilliant idea of making the red emperor the titular waifu of the game that each person/lord/whatever Rhea is must find a way to excuse and/or justify her actions.

With this in mind, AM is basically Dimitri's fall (and rise!) because of his ties to Supreme Leader.

In VW? The game cannot explore too much outside of the Supreme Leader scope so we're left with.. well, what VW was.

Claude cannot go on a journey to discover Fodlan and get rid of his misconceptions... because part of those same misconceptions are used by Supreme Leader to start her war, or the sheer concept of a conquest, aka a nation being rolled over by another is anathema to his, supposed, ideal of wanting people to accept each other despite their differences.

I ranted about it since day 5, but the Nabatean subplot (and Fodlan in general) is accessory to Supreme Leader war, there is no point aka no payoff for learning all of that, because you cannot challenge the one who wants to unify the continent.

As such, Claude cannot deviate too far from this plot - while receiving infodumps about "the lore" - and we end up with third wheel of a bike and characters who, at first and second glance, appear to be irrelevant.

Fodlan ends up unified despite starting as three separate countries, we feel bad for Supreme Leader and mourn her unknown ideals, Rhea is gone and the Agarthans aren't a problem anymore.

the second the devs said leicester was a republic, claude was doomed. Merchant republics are always irrelevent or straight up useless in the FE series!

[deathbirby]

[lilias42]

Des nouvelles de la BD de Pyrkaïa : l'arrivée à Garreg Mach et des "retrouvailles"

Bon, ça fait pas si longtemps que je n'avais pas mis de mise à jour sur l'avancée des travaux mais, j'étais plutôt fière de ses planches alors, j'avais envie de les partager.

Pas vraiment de précision à apporter, il n'y a pas de vocabulaire un peu spécifique mais, leçon de cette BD : ne pas remettre un symbole sur le front d'un personnage qui descend vers ses yeux ! C'est parfois un enfer sur des petites Pyrkaïa de faire rentrer sa marque sur son front sans lui en faire un énorme ou empiété sur ses yeux ! Heureusement qu'elle n'a pas de frange mais plutôt des "antennes" (qui sont devenu officiellement ma marque de la famille Charon : cette petite mèche ou deux sur le front, elles l'ont toutes de manière plus ou moins prononcé, Dimitri comprit a cette mèche) sinon, j'aurais été bonne pour changer tous son design... alors que j'aime bien cette marque sur sa tête... Enfin, j'essayerai d'améliorer ça une fois que ce sera en noir...

Ah, peut-être un point un peu limite : dès que Pyrkaïa voie... quelqu'un on va dire pour ne pas spoiler les pages d'en dessous, elle déduit tout de suite que cette personne est du même peuple que lui... à la réflexion, c'est un peu limite mais, j'en avais besoin pour le bien du déroulé alors, on va dire "TG, c'est le scénario" et qu'en plus, c'est littéralement la première fois qu'elle rencontre quelqu'un qui dégage la même énergie que lui dans un endroit remplis de symboles de sa culture à lui alors, elle a mis la charrue avant les boeufs.

Et pour le petit personnage en haut de la première page, elle n'est pas encore apparue vu que ces pages ne sont pas encore nettoyées mais, il s'agit d'un clin d'oeil à ma première série de billet sur ce blog, UA "bye !" étant donné que c'est Ariel, l'élève qui remplaçait Félix dont la famille était passée côté Leicester pour diverses raisons. Vu qu'elle n'a pas trop eu d'apparition ailleurs et que je ne l'ai jamais réutilisé dans mes histoires, je voulais au moins l'utiliser ici vu que dans cet UA, elle devait rejoindre la classe avec Ashe après avoir tenté de fuir les troupes de Lonato et de l'Eglise Occidentale pour rejoindre Garreg Mach afin d'arrêter cette folie, étant particulièrement déterminée étant donnée qu'elle est une femme trans qui doit se planquer de la secte occidentale.

Sans plus de circonvoluassions, voici la suite de l'histoire de Pyrkaïa !

[fodlansbestmom]

y’all know how often byleth comes into their room to find Sothis naked? A lot. Not because there’s any naughty meaning behind it. But because she simply doesn’t like clothes. That’s it.

[lananiscorner]

Summary:            

After her rescue from Enbarr by Dimitri, Rhea has withdrawn to the Red Canyon to live a life of peace and seclusion, interrupted by a monthly visit from Flayn to deliver some books, and have tea and a chat. However, as Catherine's feelings for her and Flayn's frustrations with Seteth's prudish behavior become more obvious, Rhea devices a plan...

Notes:    

To celebrate Rhea's birthday, here's a cute little first chapter to a fic that I had been meaning to write for a while. This story will be almost exclusively Rhea & Flayn as well as Rhea/Catherine. And before anyone asks: I DO actually like Seteth, in part because he is flawed (the flaw in this case being an overbearing father).

The song Rhea sings is a translation of part if "Mein Anblick", by German medieval folk rock band Schandmaul.

Disclaimer: This work was written for publication on Archive of Our Own and my personal Tumblr and is not for profit. Any re-publication on for-profit/monetized sites/apps is not authorized or supported by me. If you come across such a re-publication, please leave a comment here or in my tumblr ask box. Podfics and translations may be authorized upon request.

Full text below the cut for those who prefer to read on tumblr

It began, as so many things did, with a careless, casual remark, flung out into the open to be forgotten within seconds.

"Dimitri has invited me to visit him and Dedue in the capital and I am sorely tempted to accept," Flayn had said as she had put the finishing touches on the white flower pattern she had been stitching onto her new skirt, "but father has been terribly busy for the last two months and likely will be for several more. I believe pigs will start ascending to the sky before he lets me make such a journey all on my own."

"I see..."

Rhea sipped from the Crescent Moon Tea that Flayn had prepared for the two of them. Or... well... technically, the three of them, but Catherine had refused to partake, as she had had for the last ten moons, no matter how often Flayn had reassured her that her presence was not disturbing their conversations at all. Instead, she was patrolling the ruins again, the low, vibrating sound of her distant off-key humming similar to the rustling of leaves in a forest.

"I understand his desire to be cautious in these times," Rhea finally conceded as she put her cup down once more. Why did tea have to be hot? "The war may be over, but I hear some of the dark mages Edelgard employed are still in hiding." Her hands clung closer to the cup, the chill from the dungeons of Enbarr creeping back into her bones even now, almost a year after her rescue. "It would be dangerous for... one of us... of all people, to travel Fodlan alone, but surely he could spare a knight or two to accompany you? And once you are in Fhirdiad, surely His Majesty would ensure your safety?"

Flayn sighed. "I don't think it is ambushes from dark mages that father is concerned about." She finished another two stitches, then paused in the middle of the third. "Unless every man in Fhirdiad leaves the city while I am visiting, I doubt father's fears could be allayed."

"I see."

Rhea wanted to sigh. She could probably get away with it too, now that she was no longer the archbishop, forced to perform serenity, wisdom and grace, even when she was truly upset, lost and raw with grief on the inside. Still, this was Flayn. Her niece. One of the last five Nabateans in existence, or possibly six if one counted the new archbishop. For her sake, she could endure that torture again for a few hours each month.

"I assume you have talked to Seteth about this?"

"More times than I wish to count." Flayn rolled her eyes and took a petulant stab at her skirt. "He insists that I know far too little about the dangers inherent in such attachments and that we shall 'discuss it another time'."

Finally, frustration won out. Rhea watched silently as Flayn secured the needle close to where she had finished stitching and threw the whole garment onto the pile of books she was going to take back to the monastery with her. A History of Brigid and Dagda. The Tales of Kyphon. Songs of the North.

Songs of the North...

Rhea's lips curved into the slightest smile. She had an ide—

"What do you think he means by that, Rhea? Considering how long we..." Flayn took up her cup and downed it whole, without the slightest pause. If her throat glowed as hot as her cheeks, she was bravely ignoring it. Or perhaps, even using the fire as fuel for her frustrated words. "What is 'another time' for him? In a hundred years? A thousand? They will all be dead by then, Rhea!"

"Who will be dead?"

True to her name, Catherine burst into the room at the speed of lightning, sword drawn, body poised for battle. Flayn's cup tumbled out of her hands and shattered on the marble table just as her startled yelp came to a close.

"Just point me at them! I will cut them down to size!"

"There's no-one to cut, Catherine." To Rhea's surprise, the sound that came out of her own throat was a surprised giggle.

A giggle.

When was the last time she had been carefree enough to giggle?

"I... um... I was speaking of... um..." Flayn's hands reached for the shards almost too quickly. Rhea could already foresee her injuring her fingers. "...the fish! Ow!" She pulled her hands back from the mess on the table and pouted at the cut in childlike indignation for just a moment, before turning to Catherine with a sheepish smile. "His majesty invited me to visit the capital, but I am just so worried the fish in the pond will all be dead if I'm gone for so many weeks."

Catherine raised an eyebrow, then put away her sword. She looked almost disappointed. And positively bored.

"Why would you worry about the fish? Last I checked, Garreg Mach has an actual Fishkeeper whose entire job it is to ensure the fish are well." Catherine shrugged. "Well, until they are caught and taken to the kitchens anyway."

"Oh, of course." Rhea smiled, took off one of her gloves, and wrapped it around Flayn's injured finger, pressing gently. "How easily one forgets the simplest of facts, when worried about something one holds dear."

"Now that," Catherine sighed, "that feeling I know all too well. I shall take my leave then. My apologies for interrupting."

"It is quite alright." Rhea shook her head. Her gaze wondered once more to the books. To the Songs of the North.

Perhaps Catherine's interruption had been more than alright.

Perhaps it was time to beat Seteth at his own game.

"Wait, Catherine!"

"Yes, Lady Rhea?" She had been almost out of the room already, yet Catherine froze and turned around in an instant.

"I have a question before you go. That melody you were humming before... it sounds distantly familiar, but I cannot recall its title, no matter how hard I try."

The blush that rose to Catherine's cheeks almost instantly confirmed what she had already guessed. It had truly only been half a lie. She had not been certain about the title, but she had had her suspicions. And if her suspicions were correct...

"I believe it's called 'Your Sight', Lady Rhea." Catherine's voice could not have sounded more nervous if she had been on her knees, wielding a ring instead of a sword. "But I honestly don't remember the words. Just the melody."

Now that was a lie, but one Rhea was happy to overlook. She granted Catherine leave once more, then finally withdrew her glove to look at Flayn's finger.

The bleeding had stopped. The subtle glazing over of her eyes as bitter tears made their way to the surface had not.

"Please accept my apologies, Rhea. It's just..." Flayn wiped her eyes with her sleeve and sat up as straight and unbending as she could. "It's just not fair. How am I supposed to learn, if he won't let me within ten feet of a man without supervision?"

"Well," Rhea smiled and wrangled the copy of Songs of the North out of the pile as gently as she could. "We could start here."

"The books from the library?" Flayn raised an eyebrow and continued her work of gathering the shards of her poor cup, this time with more care. "I already asked the librarians, the monks and even some of the students for recommendations, but whatever novels of romance the library may have, they are not accessible to me. And if I were to buy one at the market, surely father would find out."

"That is why you look for the romance in books that are not about romance." Rhea's smile turned positively sly. "You just have to know where to look."

The cover was heavy and worn, but inside the pages looked almost untouched by the sands of time. Little wonder, Rhea thought to herself, as she let her finger run down the index, when there is nothing in this book that would be relevant to any study of battle.

But love... oh yes. There were things in here that were relevant to the study of love.

"Ah!" Her heart made a little jump when she finally found it. Is this how students felt when they bent the rules instead of breaking them? It had been too long since she had felt this... juvenile and mischievous. "There it is."

The page was one-hundred and sixty-five. Though some of the words were partially blotted out by prints of a paw here or an unfortunate drop of wax there, the song was legible enough. Rhea cleared her throat and straightened her back.

"If I had a brush for painting your visage, the gleam of your fair eyes, your full rosy lip, I'd paint your fine brow, your sweet smile and faint freckles as they caught me in their most enchanting grip."

The distant humming stopped almost exactly at the same time as Flayn's shocked gasp. Had it been unkind of her to Catherine, to sing so loudly a song of such obvious intent? Perhaps, but the damage was done. Rhea cleared her throat once more and continued.

"If I had a flute for playing the sweet notes that tell of your limitless beauty and grace, I'd play the full roundel of heavenly dances as they haunt my thoughts since those most fateful days.

But neither pictures, nor sweet notes nor kind words, could ever describe what occurred in that place. When I saw you there, how it shook all my soul... Yes, upon that night, you kindled my flame.

The sun and the stars, they tell stories of you, every gust speaks of you, through and through, every single breath, every stride, carries your name with it, so far and wide."

She closed the book softly, careful not to disturb the faint echo of her voice that travelled across the ruins of Zanado. She could all but see it reverberate in Flayn's body. It was rare to see both a smile and tears on her niece's face, yet here they were.

Rhea shook her head and laughed softly. "I apologize if my rendition of it did not do it justice."

"Oh, that," Flayn blinked furiously, as if awakening from a dream, "that's not the case at all! It is truly a beautiful song! And you performed it very well! I just..." The shards were neatly arranged now. Flayn looked almost disappointed at them for no longer providing a welcome distraction and retrieved her stitching project instead. Still, the needle remained idle between her fingers. "I just..."

"You did not expect to find an ode of love in the middle of a book about chivalry and the harsh wilderness of Faerghus in winter, did you?"

"No." At last, Flayn resumed her stitches, but even so her attention was only half there. "No, I did not."

"And neither would Seteth."

Rhea returned the book to the pile and got up to search for the list of next month's haul that she had prepared the day before. Granted, she had not expected to help her niece fill an educational gap that was becoming increasingly important to remedy, but then again, it was hardly too late to add one more book to the list.

By the time she came back, Flayn had abandoned the floral patterns of her skirt once more. Her gaze was fixated on the books, yet it seemed a million miles away. There was curiosity there, and longing, and hope, yes... but also trepidation, brushed with a hint of guilt.

Yes, Rhea had been alive long enough to be able to read Flayn's face easily enough, but sometimes the quiet parts had to be said out loud.

"What troubles you, Flayn? Please, speak honestly."

"I'm worried." It wasn't what Rhea had expected her to start with, but as she sat down again, the slight shaking of Flayn's hands confirmed that she was not exaggerating. "I hate having to go behind father's back about such things. I know he will be furious if he finds out... and disappointed. Disappointed and hurt that I chose to shut him out."

"But was it really you who did the choosing?" She kept her voice as soft and gentle as she could. Going by the confused look on Flayn's face, perhaps even too gentle.

"I'm afraid I do not follow..."

"You tried to learn naturally, by interacting with the students. Seteth refused to let you." Rhea picked up the owl feather she kept near the books and dipped it in thick, black ink. "You tried to learn from the books at Garreg Mach. Seteth refused to let you." Oh but where to start... There were so many things that would need explaining, so many opportunities... "You talked to Seteth himself about this issue... and he refused to help."

"You mean he left me no choice."

"Precisely."

Although to be perfectly fair to Seteth, it was not just his own behavior that complicated things. Rhea forced her face into the display of graceful serenity she had been so happy to give up upon her retirement to Zanado. Long-lived as their kind may be, even Nabateans went through an age of natural curiosity and yearning and Flayn... well, Flayn was exactly at that point.

And perhaps that was the best point to start. She jotted the name of the book down quickly, before returning quill and ink where they belonged. When she turned back around, the paper was already in Flayn's hand.

A very confused Flayn's hands.

"Best Practices for Codes of Conduct in Training Facilities throughout Fodlan." Flayn's eyebrows knitted into a heavy frown. "I fail to see how that would contain any... relevant information."

"And so will Seteth," Rhea shrugged. "To him, it will just be another book on my monthly reading list. Have the librarians give them to you early, and when your brother asks why, say you wish to broaden your horizons and be able to talk about my reading choices with me."

Flayn looked at her in mild concern, then at the list, then back at Rhea. "You want me to lie to my own father?"

"Of course not. But how is any of what I just said a lie? You will broaden your horizons. And we will discuss what you read. We are merely emitting to mention which part of it."

She wasn't fully convinced, Rhea could see that much. Still, Flayn folded the note carefully and tucked it into the book at the top of the stack, before returning to her sewing.

"Thank you, Rhea. Although I suppose it will still be a long time before I get to undertake that visit to the capital."

"Unfortunately, yes." Rhea picked up her cup of tea once more and couldn't help but smile. It was finally a drinkable temperature. "But as the Fifth Book of Seiros says, the Goddess will never deny the splendors of patience."

[reunionandthen]

last rb

[sublimeflowoftime]

{ magnolia :   describe your muse’s relationship with nature   &   the natural world

Botanical Headcanons

Sothis clearly likes and appreciates nature, or at the very least, even if she doesn’t necessarily ‘appreciate’ it, she understands that it is necessary and something that needs to be preserved. It’s a neutral opinion. A neutral opinion leaning positively, sure, but overall neutral.

By that I mean I think she probably values general progress over saving every single blade of grass. If someone were to cut down a tree to build a house, for example, she’s not gonna suddenly become the Lorax. She’d probably be more like “Yeah, sure, build your house”, only coming to have a problem with it if the tree was of some sort of importance, or if the amount being cut down was getting to be larger than necessary, of if the necessary amount was an amount that would throw of the entire ecosystem.

In a lot of her art, such as The Mural (TM) and the art that can only be seen for a second in the opening cutscene (though there’s a placeholder image without the distortion still in the game files that make it clearer), she is wearing in her hair what seem like the same flowers as Rhea. So her appreciation for nature does go beyond just the practicality nature of it, at the very least.

Though what she did for Fodlan in the history we can access does seem to focus more on societal development rather than coexisting with the natural world. One look at Zanado from the past shows that it has little to no plant life to be seen, only human/Nabatean life. There is not a single bit of green in that picture.

While this could just be a case of that already being the environment since it’s a mountain range and sometimes they are just like that, Zanado is located within Ogma Mountains, which is surrounded by the monastery, Remire, Magdred, and Varley, all of which we know for a fact to have plenty of grass (except Varley I guess I can’t remember if there’s a map there like there is in Remire and Magdred). That, plus the fact that Zanado as visited in the game and as displayed that one time in FEH, the “present” version, does have grass and does have moss that cover the ruins.

The natural life in the canyon was likely destroyed so that the city could be built within it, which Sothis had to have given the green light to for it to have happened. She literally lived there. She knew, and she was okay with it until the whole war thing destroyed more of the environment than was sustainable, which is when she then decided to sacrifice herself to save the land. 

Had the damage been on a smaller scale or contained within a small area, she probably wouldn’t have cared too much and just left the land to fix itself. Though she probably would have also not allowed any construction to be done in that area for the time being to give the area an opportunity to heal.

[voxmilia]

In other news, local bimbo dreamingofspring restarted her battle in fe3h about 4 times because she was under the impression the divine pulses just. Weren't available for the first mission

Reader, they were, in fact, available for the first mission

[lumeha]

Thinking about it, like, genuinely, I think characterising Rhea as someone who hates humanity because of her reaction to Edelgard in the Holy Tomb... misses the fact that, for me, she can only react that strongly to what she sees as betrayal because she cares about humans as a whole. That's why it sends her into a spiral. That's why it hurts her to the point of anger : because it stabs her with pinpoint accuracy into the still bleeding parts of her, the part of her that is the only survivor of Zanado. The part of her that was beaten bloody open and to a pulp by humans who were greedy for power and didn't care who they killed in the process.

It feels to me like this is exactly why she gets so deeply affected by this - because she did put a lot of her chips on the bet that humans are better than Nemesis and the Agarthans. To the point of sparing the children of her enemies, their families, their clans. To the point of repeatedly opening her home for them.

That's... not the behaviour of someone who despises humanity

Is she letting herself be close to people ? No. But does that mean she doesn't care for them ? No, not at all. She is just. Closed off. That's not the same as not caring.

[arnault]

i had a train of thought about saint seiros and catholic canonization and ended up yapping about how rhea's sainthood isn't a symbol of her divinity but is an allegory of her humanity instead.

sainthood in the catholic church is the recognition of people who performed miracles, did acts of goodwill, etc. in the name of god. these individuals are then canonized by the church who acknowledge their good deeds and are now considered as holy people, the closest we—original sin bearers, according to them—get to divinity i guess and a lot of canonized saints were people who weren't the best nor the ones you'd expect to be saint.

in fe3h, of course we know the church was not exactly what we thought it was and such rules might or might not be in the seiros doctrines. seiros is a self declared saint lol yes, it was a ruse but it made me think and compare that situation to catholic canonizations.

rhea was born a divine being, a child of the goddess. she doesn't need to be elevated to sainthood, she IS divine. you don't need to sanctify what is pure from the very beginning. that's like calling an angel a saint or something and implying that a divine entity had been a sinner/impure and is only holy because of canonization which i think, from a religious fanatic pov, is an insult. anyways seiros, however, is called a saint... which i'd like to think implies the opposite of the catholic church's meaning of sainthood.

rhea/seiros' sainthood is a symbol of her humanity.

of her being flawed, her imperfections. everything that happened after zanado was her, a divine being, becoming human. her vengeance, righteous fury, her grief and most of all, her kindness despite all that's happened are what makes her human.

honestly don't know where i'm going with this but i guess you could look at the tragedy being her rebirth? from "holy" to human. her humanity began the second she lost her mother. it spiraled her grief and drove her to vengeance—her war with nemesis and his 10 elites. and then, there's her church. what started out as damage control and a self-preservation driven lie turned into something genuine that allowed her to learn to love the people that killed her own.

her continued service to the people (albeit morally questionable at times i have to admit) is, to me, her continued acceptance of her humanity–whether conscious, not, or figuratively. as opposed to indech and macuil yeeting out of human affairs the moment the war was over, a refusal of their "humanity" and choosing "divinity" instead.

ok, that's all. my point is rhea's humanity is what makes her holy. her ability to be kind after all that she went through is what makes her a saint and that makes me insane sometimes because can you imagine losing your people and you're the only one that knows, surrounded by the mirror image of the people that took your own?? anyways, talking to empty chairs: thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[randomnameless]

I think the example of the aqueduct in the Red Canyon alongside with how among Seiros's miracles was creating a canal through Enbarr that was vital to it's growth, couple that with how humanity flourished due to Sothis sharing technology with them, I think the game might be hinting that technology regressed under the rule of Nemesis and the Agarthans, the latter keeping their own tech away from those they deemed as base animals.

TBH I'm always a bit miffed by the "technology" talks, because while Agartha sure kept Sothis' more advanced tech and current Fodlan was supposed to be "age of discovery" developed, we still have magic, like, people can warp around...

Tech in general regressed post Sothis vs Agarthans war, but we don't know how advanced/far Enbarr was before the WoH - of course they didn't have elevators, but indeed, I suppose that, in general, after this war, Fodlan had to rebuild itself without Sothis giving tech bonuses anymore to accelerate the growth and development of humans - and here would come the sci-fi principle of "giving tech when people are mature enough" or something, so maybe the Nabateans wanted to let humans develop themselves first, and then would have helped later on?

I still find it fascinating that when Rhea was apparently "roaming around Fodlan clinging to her desire of revenge", instead of directing the Enbarrites to build thousands of mecha-golems, she... made a canal for them.

[deathbirby]

still can't believe that mod is spouting that shit about nemesis being a good guy cuz the nabateans were oppressing humanity when by the time nemesis did the genocide the nabateans were nearly exclusively residing in zanado and sothis herself was sleeping... like that's literally WHY he killed almost all of them because almost all of them had secluded themselves AWAY from humans in one specific spot. aside from everything else wrong with saying that there's just nothing in the game that remotely supports their position at all.

it's like they all WANT it to be true. like. really really REALLY want it to be true. there's such a weirdly persistent need to paint nabateans as evil AS A RACE from that mod and everyone who agrees with them, frankly i can't see it as anything but that mod being a racist.

Don't forget that he said that Nabateans should become subservient to humans as "atonement" for their crimes. Oh and they can't have any "power" over humans.

That is totally not racist and normal. Mhm. Nothing to see here!

[autochroma]

in zanado

[cherrypikkins]

Here is my contribution for today's prompt for @fe-oc-week! Oct 10 - Relationships.

Today I have provided some material about some key figures in my fe3h OC Kitt's past and present. :3

Click the read more for the lore! (contains mentions of blood, injury, death, body horror)

Kitt Burgess, Ward of the Church - Part II A few years before 1180, the Church of Seiros was alerted to suspicious activity in the Oghma Mountains. When Seteth and Flayn arrived at the village of Annwen to investigate, they discovered a burning ruin filled with its former inhabitants, either lying dead or transformed into rampaging Demonic Beasts. It was there that Kitt, the sole survivor of the disaster, was discovered in a death-like state with a damaged Crest Stone embedded in the back of their neck.

Sensing signs of life, Flayn attempted to heal Kitt, but was unable to stabilize the corrupting influence of the Crest Stone. Seeing that the convulsing Kitt was in danger of transforming into a Demonic Beast, Flayn begged Seteth to intervene. Together, they enacted a ritual sanctioned by the Archbishop Rhea and performed a heavy transfusion of blood. This miraculously succeeded in halting the transformation - if only for the time being.

Kitt was brought to Garreg Mach Monastery, where they spent a year in recovery adjusting to the blood in their veins and beginning a new life under the watchful eye of the Church. Though the transfusion was enough to save their life, it was not enough to fully neutralize the danger posed by the Crest Stone, nor are they yet visibly able to manifest the necessary Crest. As such, they are subject to violent attacks and transformations on occasion. The ordeal also seems to have affected their memories. They struggle to recall key events and figures in their past, and yet the memories they are able to recall seem 'impossible', as though they belong to someone else.

For a time, they were cared for by Seteth and Flayn, who welcomed them into the fold as though they were family. However, Kitt eventually grew suspicious of Seteth, Flayn, and the Archbishop Rhea, sensing that there was more behind the calamity at Annwen and the Crest Stone in their neck than the three were willing to disclose. The church's politics and secret-keeping only compounded their suspicion further. As a result, Kitt has ceased to trust their new family and has had a falling out since.

But perhaps the reason behind this quarrel runs deeper below the surface. Perhaps Kitt glimpsed something in the memories imbued by the Crest Stone - some terrible truth that Flayn and Seteth tried to conceal from them. Or perhaps something even more terrible happened to the three of them, such that it was enough for them to sever ties.

It is said that the Archbishop Rhea is unable to look at Kitt directly in the eye. Yet, she is the one who declared Kitt a protected ward of the Church of Seiros, and that their safety and well-being in Garreg Mach was to be ensured without question.

Gwyn, the Unsung Hero - Part I It is said that the warrior Gwyn first appeared at Lake Annwen, deep in the Oghma Mountains, when Nemesis began his bloody campaign to conquer Fodlan. When refugees, deserters, and defectors fled into the mountain wilderness, Gwyn took these people under their wing and declared Annwen a sanctuary upon which none will suffer persecution from the church nor conquest from Nemesis. Over time, a small city was built - one that mirrored the now ruined Zanado, defended alone by Gwyn, who was soon revered as a hero by the people they safeguarded.

The growing settlement and the seemingly inhuman strength of their founder attracted the attention of the Seiros Army. However, Gwyn refused to entreat them until Saint Cichol and Saint Cethleann appealed to the warrior directly. Gwyn at last agreed to offer up their strength in service to Seiros, though only after forcing Saint Cichol to swear that the people of Annwen would be kept safe from all harm and allowed to live their lives in peace. As a show of goodwill, the Saints gifted Gwyn the sacred axe known as Canopus to wield in the oncoming battle.

This was the first - and only - manifestation of the Crest of Gwyn known to history.

Gwyn was instrumental in defending Enbarr against Nemesis and his Elites. Though they emerged from the siege heavily wounded, their actions allowed the Army of Seiros to push back and gain a foothold northward. On the day of the founding of the Adrestian Empire, Gwyn returned the Axe of Canopus to Saint Cichol, intent on leaving for Annwen. When Emperor Wilhelm I asked if Gwyn would accept a reward for defending the capital, the hero responded that they only wished for the people of Annwen to live well and in peace for all their days.

When offered a place among the Saints, they refused. And so, from that point on, they faded away from history. Some say that Gwyn perished shortly from their wounds and was laid to rest. Others say they simply fell into a deep sleep at an unknown location and remains so to this day. Others claim that Gwyn lived the rest of their life in full among the ordinary people of Annwen.

After the Battle of Tailtean, Fodlan was unified, bringing an age of uncertain peace to the land. The population of Annwen soon dwindled as its inhabitants began to leave the remote sanctuary to start their lives anew in Adrestian society. Though the city was soon forgotten over the ages, a dedicated few remained to form a place of pilgrimage dedicated to Gwyn. Living quiet lives away from main society, they continued to honor the hero and safeguard the mysterious stone they had left behind, along with the promise that they would one day return.

The Capricious One - Part I 'Capricious' is the name of the Nabatean whose tale is a blemish upon their people's history.

In ancient times, they wandered the land and walked freely among humans, refusing to be tied to such a place as Zanado where their own kind dwelled.

They harbored a mutual disdain for the other Nabateans, including their own family, but deeply venerated the Goddess Sothis.

They were said to be closely related in blood to the Nabatean known as The Hammer of Judgment, he who would later take up the name Saint Cichol. It is speculated that the two were like siblings. Though they confided in one another, their opposing natures often put them at odds.

Theirs was the Sign of the Mist Dragon.

They were notorious amongst other Nabateans for their tempestuous personality and acting upon a wicked whim, true to their name. Whispers of ancient history suggested that they were capable of both limitless kindness and unimaginable cruelty, of great contempt and greater love, as greedy as they were generous, known to show astonishing mercy and yet hold everlasting grudges.

Though these qualities made them wildly unpredictable, they always heeded the wisdom of the Goddess, and would on occasion show deference to their counterpart - The Hammer of Judgment.

Whenever they took their escapades too far, the Immaculate One would often be called upon to reprimand them, which resulted in a growing tension between the two.

Some said they reveled in causing trouble. Others said they simply saw the world differently, and had only the best of intentions.

Even before the fall of Zanado, to whisper their name was to invite shame and sorrow.

…Not because of the unfathomable deeds they committed, but for the horrific fate they suffered as a result.

(to be continued)

[fodlansbestmom]

“Why is there such a lack of marble? The church would look so much better with marble!”

[quillfulwriter]

Look, Rhea is a tragic figure. I feel for her. Her trauma at the hands of Nemesis and the Agarthans is vast, and the slaughter in Zanado is completely unforgivable.

But until she's healed from that trauma and doesn't blame all of humanity for that nightmare, there's absolutely no reason she should be in charge of anything. Much less the very people she resents.

The Empire was created when the Church named Wilhelm its emperor, and the Kingdom is literally called the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus because it was founded by the Church as well. It's only by looking at the Alliance where you can see how the commoners especially feel about the Church's practices when they haven't been indoctrinated.

When the priest from The Eastern Church is trying to stress how they're different from the Central Church, he says:

Their church doesn't have an order of knights.

They don't believe in using force to chastise believers.

A noble house keeps order in their territory, and they have forbidden the use of any soldiers, even for self-defense.

You can reverse engineer these to describe how they see the Central Church in Leicester: Militant, violent towards its followers, and deceitful (claiming self-defense as a shield for its violent ways).

This is correct. The Church has a standing army and a school used to train child soldiers. It punishes criminals with execution more often than not. And it actively warps major events to make people see them in a certain light.

Yes, Rhea chose to keep the peace rather than openly hating humanity. That's not exactly a kindness when she 1) makes sure most people are reliant on the church for basic needs 2) restricts access to education based on who she can control (nobles vs. commoners) 3) bans advances in technology like the printing press so she can more easily prohibit the spread of knowledge and 4) creates clones and experiments on babies.

I understand she is traumatized. I understand she is in pain and trying to protect her people from another slaughter. But the simple fact is she's not even doing that well, because she's refused to heal. Everything she does against the Agarthans is basically whack-a-mole, and she only ever punishes who they manipulated.

Hubert found TWSD in 10 years! She's had centuries! I can't even say he's healed from his trauma to make that happen, but at least he directed it to something practical that got results. So no one would suffer like he had.

But Rhea? She's content to punish and oppress humanity for being manipulated by the Agarthans. Meanwhile, TWSD experiments on children too and the Church does nothing. When Lysithea and Edelgard are the sole survivors of murky circumstances, one would think that the Church would get involved. Even for aid. But no. They had their chance to make this right, and they chose to turn a blind eye.

I cannot rightly believe that she really cares about human beings when she treats the people most loyal to her so horribly. Even Seteth! She's telling Catherine to burn down a city with people inside in the Black Eagles route, she's never once tried to get anyone to teach Cyril to read and write (Seteth was the only one interested in doing that for him), and she hid all of her atrocities from Seteth because she knew that what she was doing was wrong.

Her compassion as the archbishop ultimately comes from a place of indoctrination and control. Understandable though it may be because of what she experienced, it's still wrong. And she shouldn't be in charge of anything because of that.